As the number of vehicles on the road increases, roadway traffic is becoming a growing concern. This is especially the case in urban areas where the quantity of vehicles on the road often approaches or exceeds capacity. One particular area of concern involves emergency vehicles. Specifically, when responding to an emergency, an emergency vehicle must often traverse the streets in a potentially dangerous manner. This could involve exceeding local speed limits, passing other vehicles, and crossing intersections against the traffic signals. Although this could be necessary to properly respond to the emergency, it could create hazardous conditions for other motorists.
Part of the overall problem is the inability of the other motorists to accurately detect the direction from which an emergency vehicle is coming. For example, although a motorist might hear sirens, he/she might not be able to determine the direction from which the sound is coming. This is especially the case around an intersection where an emergency vehicle could approach from any number of directions. Sirens can also be inadequate because they are often not heard until the emergency vehicle is imminent. In addition, a siren may not even be heard by another motorist due to various distractions within his/her vehicles (e.g., a radio being played too loudly). As such, many sirens fail to provide ample warning time.
Heretofore, various systems have been developed for attempting to warn motorists of approaching emergency vehicles. For example, one system changes a traffic signal to be favorable to an approaching emergency vehicle. Unfortunately, this system not only requires a transmitter to be positioned on the emergency vehicles, but receivers to be positioned on each traffic signal as well. As such, the implementation and maintenance of such a system can be extremely costly. Moreover, such a system gives no indication that an emergency exists, rather, it merely changes the traffic signal. Accordingly, another motorist might not realize that an emergency vehicle is approaching and he/she might not stay clear of the intersection (e.g., he/she might still attempt to make a right turn on red). One other system involves positioning a transmitter on an emergency vehicle, and a specially adapted direction finding antenna on the other vehicles. As the emergency vehicle approaches, a signal is transmitted from the transmitter to the direction finding antenna to warn the motorist of the approaching emergency vehicle. Similar to the previous system, however, this system requires multiple “units.” Specifically, a transmitter must be positioned on the emergency vehicle and a receiver (e.g., a specially adapted direction finding antenna) must be positioned on all other vehicles. In addition, with both of these systems, there is often a latency involved in changing the traffic signal, or warning the approaching vehicles. Such a latency could be the cause for accidents and injury.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for an emergency vehicle approach warning method and system. Specifically a need exists for motorists to be warned of an approaching emergency vehicle. A further need exists for such a system to not require both transmitters and receivers. Still yet, a need exists for such a system to indicate to the motorists the direction from which the emergency vehicle is approaching (i.e., a direction of origin of the emergency vehicle).